Karak chai which translates to ‘strong tea’ has been a drink enjoyed within my family for many years. The strong tea not only ignites our senses but our memories too. From smelling the spices in my mother’s kitchen to drinking it every day, the tea has become a part of my daily ritual. Karak chai originates from India and is made using loose tea, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, sugar, water and milk. It has always been a drink which brings people together, served for any occasion. Karak chai traverses contexts and continents: I associate it simultaneously with my home in Manchester and my grandparents’ home in Karachi, Pakistan.

Learning about my roots, family, traditions and society is important to me. Through ‘kahani’, a form of oral history, conversations with my family have taught me the importance of heritage and of our journey from Pakistan to England. Karak chai has been present throughout, serving to construct a space of sharing alongside shared history. In our culture we have always been taught to be hospitable, inviting people to our home and sharing chai and traditional sweets. The tradition continues within my own home, and I offer this drink to visitors, family and friends.

This work explores the role of karak chai in the diasporic home through the construction of scenes depicting traces of memories, shared histories and sites using the natural stain of the chai. The work is intentionally ambiguous. It is simultaneously a collective and an individual experience; the chai being recognisable and common in our community, with every reader perceiving and finding images within the natural stain in their own way. The images held within stains are not fixed with multiple possible readings to be found. This indeterminacy creates a continuous and unfolding process of reading the scenes. Rather than fix the images, I have instead created an extensive catalogue of layers and threads within the work.

The construction of the scenes involved the staining of chai bags. The cotton and filter paper material of the bags created a collection of textures and richness in colour. Through an extensive process I developed a catalogue of stains providing a layered palette to work from. The smell of the chai is present within the series of scenes, encapsulating the reader with the chai scent and, in the process, in the stories told at the dining tables of homes the world over.